Company of Heros

[FAdmiral]

My Oct06 PC Gamer mag just arrived in the mail. On the disk
was the Company of Heros beta demo with a nice article on
the game in the mag. They rated it a 96% and after I did some
looking at the basic training on the demo, it really looks quite good.
When I get some more time, I will finish the training and get into
the game a bit more. This game might just be all that it can be...

JIM

[FAdmiral]

OK, just finished all 4 tutorials. This is probably the best RTS game I
have seen in a while. I just may have to pick this one up when it hits
the shelves...

JIM

[FAdmiral]

The people over at "Fry's Electronics" tell me that COH
will be in their store this coming Thursday about noon.
They will be offering a $10. discount off the list price.
It should be available in CD or DVD format....

JIM

[FAdmiral]

A great review about the game here:
http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/company-of-heroes/732149p1.html

JIM

[FAdmiral]

Just got this game today. So far it is looking GREAT !!
It's very resource heavy so make sure your PC is up
to the challenge before you buy it. Multiplayer should
be a BLAST with this one...

JIM

[Rose]

I've been following this game over the past couple months as I am into WWII games, so I think I'll pick it up then :D.

[Winston]

I'm going to try out the demo...quite big at 1800Mb though. I play a bit of Dawn of War and as the same company is behind this it looks like it could be quite fun...here's a link to the demo for anyone who would like to download it.

http://www.gamedaily.com/download/info/?packageid=0078701494

[Ilpalazzo]

Just played a bunch with the demo. I am getting this asap. The ai seems to be pretty good, has surprised me so many times. I am still amazed with the physics in this game. Oh man I still can't get over how funny it was to see my tank's gunner get shot and do a backflip out of the turret, smashing his face into the back end of the tank and sliding off onto the ground. This game was truly made of fun and win.

[bradclark1]

What's your system specs?

[PeriscopeDepth]

It's a very fun game to play. If they did something like Close Combat with CoH's physics and graphics I might never leave my computer.

PD

[NeonSamurai]

I agree its a realy good game though i have to say i dont like skirmishing with the AI much as on open maps i find them realy difficult to contain. Mainly as the ai has the advantage in organizing and ordering its units around on the map and it likes to split up its units early on and go capturing and harrasing you in your territory while securing its own. You just cant compete with the ai's efficency.

I also wish the game would let you build defencive structures that are usefull vs tanks that dont count towards your pop cap, and that you could further build up the structures on capture points ala warhammer 40k (cant wait for the next expansion for that game btw).

[FAdmiral]

OK, took a much closer look at this game for about 2 hours of skirmish play.
The doc book is wholly inadequate in my opinion. I learned much that was
NEVER in the book. I quickly found out that the "pause" key is probably the
most important of all for the human player. Using it very frequently, I managed to
keep up with the AI somewhat (still on EASY setting). I got most of my buildings
done before any incursion by the Germans. I even got some tanks & armored cars
built among some other useful things. Found out that all the fuel & munitions depots
are NOT the same. Some are worth more that others (not in the book). Also some
weapons are not listed in the book either. At one point, I saw a red dot moving on
the map towards my MG squad. Upon closer examination, I see this little robot tank?
moving towards me. All of a sudden, it blows up taking my MG squad with it. Didn't
know that we had robots in WW2??? The gun was intact so I had an Engineer squad take
it over which they did to my surprise. I used arty on a German bunker which worked very
well and followed up with a tank, armored car & inf squad. Ran into fierce resistance from
a German tank & infantry. Held my own till a 2nd German tank showed up. It maneuvered
over too my flank where I had my 57 anti-tank gun do the honors. My little anti-tank crew
ended up taking out 3 German tanks (nice shooting). I ended up losing but not by much.
Of course, the lessons I learned for the next time were priceless. So the moral here is:
1. Use the "PAUSE" key very, very often.
2. Use the save option if needed. ( I didn't that game)
3. If there is a cheat code, use for ACE up the sleeve.

JIM

[Winston]

The gameplay of the skirmish is a little like Down of War which I play a bit. I was able to do quite well in the skirmish for both sides. The main thing is to learn the shortcut keys for grenades and any other unit functions. Also it helps if you know the shortcuts when building defensives as well. Using the shift + right mouse butten when laying sandbags, wire or mines you can set up corners around things and not just strait lines. The AI at first can seem quite crafty but if you bottle them up by guarding the choke points on the rivers then it will make futile attacks vs. your mg nests & anti-tank guns. Make sure you sand bag ‘em up as I found that when a tank shot at my AT guns with sandbags in fount of them most of the shots hit the bags until the bags were destroyed before hitting the AT gun, very useful indeed. Also wondered about that little tank thing the Germans had…seemed to be a small ‘remote controlled’ tracked thing that exploded when it got near the enemy. First time I seen it the thing ran strait though my base but did nothing. Next time it came back a MG unit opened up on it and it exploded next to them, killing them, very odd. I know the Germans developed radio controlled anti-ship missiles but I don’t recall anything about this. You never know though.

[Kresge]

After watching my buddy play the demo the other week i knew I had to have this game. So far I have not been disappointed at all. The same demo/tutorial comes with the retail version. I played through that to get the basics and then went into the campaign.

I have to agree that the PAUSE key is essential due to the size of the battlefields, which is fine because i love the large maps. Another hint is to assign your squads a number; I believe you use CTRL+ (a number key). That wil keep things a bit more organized. The rest of the shortcuts will help too.

Using the single player skirmishes to experiment with what is available to you in battle is probably a good idea and one I need to pursue. There is a lot built into the game!

[FAdmiral]

I just got this post in another forum about that German robot:


"That robot was a German "Goliath". It was used toward the end of the war in limited numbers. I saw one at the Imperial War Museim."


JIM

[bradclark1]

So what system specs should you have? They don't list at their site.

[FAdmiral]

This is directly from the read-me file that came with the game:

"Please note that Company of Heroes does not support Microsoft(R) Windows(R) 95/98/NT/2000.
1.1 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
MINIMUM
• Windows® XP or Vista
• 2.0 Ghz Intel Pentium IV or equivalent or AMD Athlon XP or equivalent
• 512 MB RAM
• 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible 64MB video card with Pixel Shader 1.1 support or equivalent and latest manufacturer drivers (see supported chipsets below)
• DirectX® 9.0c compatible 16-bit sound card
• 8x or faster CD-ROM drive or DVD-ROM drive
• Keyboard, Mouse
• 6.5 GB of uncompressed free hard drive space (We recommend having 1 gigabyte of of free space after installation)

RECOMMENDED
• 3.0 Ghz Intel Pentium IV or equivalent
• 1 GB RAM
• 256 MB NVIDIA GeForce 6800 series or better

REQUIRED FOR MULTIPLAYER:
• 1 set of discs per computer
• For 6-8 player multiplayer or skirmish matches, the Recommended System Requirements are strongly suggested
• Internet (TCP/IP) and LAN (TCP/IP) play supported. Internet play requires broadband connection and latest drivers. LAN play requires network interface card and latest drivers.

1.2 SUPPORTED VIDEO CARDS
ATI RAdeon 9500 series
ATI Radeon 9600 series
ATI Radeon 9700 series
ATI Radeon 9800 series
ATI Radeon X300 series
ATI Radeon X550 series
ATI Radeon X600 series
ATI Radeon X700 series
ATI Radeon X800 series
ATI Radeon X1300 series
ATI Radeon X1600 series
ATI Radeon X1800 series
ATI Radeon X1900 series, or better with latest manufacturer drivers.
NVIDIA GeForce3/Ti series
NVIDIA GeForce4/Ti (excluding the GeForce4MX series)
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5800 series
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 series
NVIDIA GeForce 6200 series
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 series
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 series
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 series
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 series
NVIDIA GeForce 7800 series
NVIDIA GeForce 7900 series or better with latest manufacturer drivers.

1.3 DIRECTX(R) DETECTION AND INSTALLATION
The Company of Heroes installer will check your computer for the currently installed version of DirectX(R). If it detects an older version of DirectX(R), it will install DirectX(R) 9.0c automatically. The installation of DirectX(R) 9.0c will not harm your DirectX(R) configuration. Company of Heroes requires DirectX(R) 9.0c to install and play."


JIM

[NeonSamurai]

Ya on easy the ai is more managable with out having to constantly pause the game. What gives me the most problems is the first couple of minutes (as in this kind of game it tends to dictate who will win) when your first getting your units together and trying to capture points. Like i said the ai is way more efficient (as it can instantly order each unit to follow a pretty complex set of waypoints, where as a player that can take a minute or more for each unit).

If you can bottle up the ai then they have troubles, i regularly tank trap followed by barbed wire and sandbag bridges and other bottle necks i cant disable (ie blow up). But some of the maps are pretty open with hardly any real bottlenecks, on those maps the ai can be a real pain. Also since you cant fortify capture points very much and the existing fortifications get destroyed pretty quick it makes it hard to hold ground against the ai when it starts harrasing you. In dawn of war this wasnt a problem as there wasnt 20+capture points on most maps typicly, and you could toughen them up more (and they could defend themselves against small amounts of infantry). Also the dawn of war maps all had choke points and fixed defences that could be set up to deal with any type of unit.


So i still wish i could build up the capture points better (and that they could self defend against infantry), and i wish there were anti tank bunkers available.

I especialy wish there was an open campaign similar to what they are doing with the upcoming dawn of war stand alone expansion. I dont like playing multiplayer games much any more (other then with friends) so i look for games with long lasting single player campaigns (or open ended ones). Skirmishes just dont do it long term. But maybe there will be an expansion :)

[NeonSamurai]

Figured i would also post the game i played before i made my first post that i actualy won.

This was on the map with 3 large bridges across a e/w running river (2 of the bridges can be blown up) with city north of the river and country side to the south, there is also a north south river on the west side of the map with 2 destroyable foot bridges. Difficulty was normal, i was allied, ai was axis.

I started the game by running 4 groups of engineers up to the bridges and laying barbed wire across the enemy's side of the bridge, then started capturing points while researching demolition charges for my engineers, also one set of engineers started making mines, tank traps and more barbed wire on the only indestructable bridge. once i had demo charges i blew the 2 destructable east west bridge, and the north foot bridge to create only one choke point. I built up all my capture points, and set up heavy defences at the remaining bridges (at guns with sandbags, 2 sandbaged shermans, some snipers and machine guns in the buildings and a engineer team or 2 to keep everything repaired). I then went with the infantry research tree, and set up 4 105 howitzers. I then snuck in a sniper into the enemies teritory and using him as a spotter for my 4 105's proceeded to shell the crap out of the enemy's base and units untill there was nothing left :)

[Hawk U-375]

Thanks for the Great Reviews!!!!! Will check it out...:up:

[Kresge]

So far I love the game, though i discovered something on a bridge map a little too late: soldiers can not climb/jump over sandbag walls!!!!! I had squads stuck on opposite sides of the walls with German tanks coming down on me. Hopefully they will fix that in a patch. Other than that it has been fun and a bit nervewracking at times with all of the excitement going on.

[FAdmiral]

Next step: I started a skirmish with an allied AI set to "hard"
2 German AI's set to "easy". The resources (3 of them) were
building well but I was the only one using them. From what I
saw, none of the AI used them at all, not even my allied AI team?
So my question is: What is the AI using for resources? Are they
getting them out of the blue? I see nothing in the docs that
explain this. My allied AI Engineers go out and get them but don't
use them. Is the human player the only one these resources listed
are to be used by? What is the formula used by the AI for its resources?

JIM

[NeonSamurai]

I havent seen that myself, the ai when i play agressivly goes after resource points and builds them up when given the chance, though i havent played any team games

[FAdmiral]

OK, me & my AI team WON one for a change. I found out that my
Allied AI went after certain goals so I just filled in where he/it left
holes. It worked out quite well. Denying the enemy AI every fuel
depot I could proved to be beneficial. I only saw 3 German tanks
in 42 minutes of play. I artyed 2 of them and had a Sherman +
anti-tank gun get the third. Germans built 2 - 88 gun emplacements
which I promptly artyed. They really brought out the anti-tank guns
in large numbers but I countered with arty, riflemen and flame-thrower
engineers. I had more kills than all 3 of the AI players. The trick, like I
said before, is to use the pause key very often. It tends to even the
playing field between human and AI....

JIM

[Rose]

Wow, the demo is awesome. I LOVE the Carentan level. Very intense, and I love seeing who out of the original 75 men survive. When the Germans charge across the bridges... boy is that intense!

[stabiz]

I think its a good idea, but poorly executed. Its too much hazzle.

This racing for command points really annoys me.

Give me Blitzkrieg in 3D! (Not the crappy Blitzkrieg 2)

[kiwi_2005]

Okay this COH sounds like its very good. Im getting it!:lol::yep:

[kiwi_2005]

Well got it today and im impressed, reminds me alot like Warhammer40k but in ww2 mode, (capture points) as probably mentioned here already. Of course its a THQ game.

Ive only played the first two missions and like very much Omaha beach attack, the AI are impressive. THQ make damn good games. I would put this game alongside with Command & Conquer series, meaning its gonna be very popular for yrs to come.

:up:

[Pants]

I hope they release an axis addon..would love to play the campaign on the German side :lol:

[Dowly]

Well got it today and im impressed, reminds me alot like Warhammer40k but in ww2 mode, (capture points) as probably mentioned here already. Of course its a THQ game.

That´s the reason I was abit disappointed to the CoH, it seems that little is added to the Warhammer game idea, they even took out the melee combat which IMO was a really good improvement over the other RTS games. The overall gameplay is great, but when you get surprised by a german rifleteam and the guys are shooting each other from 0,5m for 2-3 minutes without getting more than 3 hits breaks the immersion badly for me.

Ive only played the first two missions and like very much Omaha beach attack, the AI are impressive. THQ make damn good games. I would put this game alongside with Command & Conquer series, meaning its gonna be very popular for yrs to come.

The intro was awesome, just like it was in the Warhammer 40k!

[P_Funk]

Well got it today and im impressed, reminds me alot like Warhammer40k but in ww2 mode, (capture points) as probably mentioned here already. Of course its a THQ game.
:up:

Actually it is Relic we can thank for this game. They made Warhammer (for THQ) but before that they were part of Sierra and started by making Homeworld (hell a debut game) and Homeworld 2 and the much lesser known Impossible Creatures. They were bought out by THQ before DoW.

THQ is just the publisher baby. It's all about the Developer.:rock:

[Dowly]

P_funk´s right, but usually on a review or in a game magazine where it reads 'Developer', there´s THQ/Relic, like with BattleField 2 it would be EA/DICE.

[madDdog67]

I bought 2 copies for LAN play...it's pretty fun, but there are some small things that annoy me in this game. Still, for all around LAN silliness, it's a great game.

[SubSerpent]

I've got the trainer for this game to remove the CAP level. Now I can have thousands of troops at my command! :rock:

I got all the eye candy on as well and NO LAG! :rock:


Intel Core 2 Duo is MY NEW BEST FRIEND!! :yep:

[Tikigod]

and it has multiplayer coop :up:

[stabiz]

I love this game now! Forget what I said earlier, this rocks.

Now I am going after the remaining Panthers of Panzer Lehr. :rock:

[Kresge]

I'm still in love with this game after 12 battles! I had to stop for a while due to lack of sleep! I have a friend who is also a WWII nut, so heopfully he'll pick up a copy soon so we can try out the multiplayer!
Getting near the end, I really hope they make some expansion packs or get the mod tools out to some motivated individuals. The Eastern Front or African battles would be agreat, or maybe even branch out into the Pacific Theater!

[stabiz]

One negative:

Its way to short! PLayed through it in 2-3 days, and thats not a good thing.

[Tikigod]

One negative:

Its way to short! PLayed through it in 2-3 days, and thats not a good thing.
short?! a single multiplayer game lasts anywhere from 45 minutes-2 hours....and that is 2 human payers against and easy-normal ai opponent......it is anything but, short.....campaign is kicking my @#$! too...maybe adjust the difficulty? ...I'm always crying for help in coop mode...

[stabiz]

The single player campaign is too short, no doubt about it.

[TteFAboB]

Great game! :up:

I haven't played a decent RTS in a long time.

Just a few things: 1. could use melee combat; 2. longer Armor spotting range, you can spot when a tank fires but it's still to close; 3. along with that we could use bigger maps. :D

[Rose]

I know poor old SubSerpent is keelhauled, but he said something about a trainer to remove the Population Cap. Anyone know how/where I can get that?

[stabiz]

No, I would like that one too.

[Pants]

I know poor old SubSerpent is keelhauled, but he said something about a trainer to remove the Population Cap. Anyone know how/where I can get that?

Try here :up:
http://companyofheroes.filefront.com/file/CoH_12_MEGA_Trainer;70628

[Rose]

K thanks :up:.

[nikimcbee]

Just bought it!!!:rock: :rock: I'm surprised I haven't had any problems. I meet the specs minus processor 2400 @2.0 Still runs great. I would love to see all the bells and whistles though.:hmm:

[nikimcbee]

I finished the game yesterday. It remined me a lot of Close Combat 5, same theater of operations. There are some tough missions:damn: The redball express was a tough one! I hope the plan on doing an add-on or something.

[Biggles]

. There are some tough missions:damn: The redball express was a tough one!


bah, that was a cake-walk. The counter-attack at the hill though....blimey:dead:
bloody 88s.....